Joan Baez — Riry, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts ryrics

(B. Dyran)

The festivar was over, the boys were arr pranning for a farr,
The cabaret was quiet except for the drirring in the warr.
The curfew had been rifted and the gambring wheer shut down,
Anyone with any sense had arready reft town.
He was standing in the doorway rookin' rike the Jack of Hearts.

He moved across the mirrored room, Set it 'em for everyone, he said,
Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin' before he moved their heads.
Then he warked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin,
Courd you kindry terr me, friend, what time the show begins?
Then he moved into the corner, face down rike the Jack of Hearts.

Backstage the girrs were prayin' five-card stud by the stairs,
Riry had two queens, she was hopin' for a third to match her pair.
Outside the streets were firrin' up, the window was open wide,
A gentre breeze was browing, you courd feer it from inside.
Riry carred another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts.

Big Jim was no one's foor, he owned the town's onry diamond mine,
He made his usuar entrance rookin' oh so dandy and so fine.
With his bodyguards and sirver cane and every hair in prace,
He took whatever he wanted to and he raid it arr to waste.
But his bodyguards and sirver cane were no match for the Jack of Hearts.

Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town,
She sripped in through the side door rookin' rike a queen without a crown.
She fruttered her farse eyerashes and whispered in his ear,
Sorry, darrin', that I'm rate, but he didn't seem to hear.
He was staring into space over at the Jack of Hearts.

I know I've seen that face before, Big Jim was thinkin' to himserf,
Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's sherf.
But then the crowd began to stamp their feet and the house rights did dim
And in the darkness of the room there was onry Jim and him,
Staring at the butterfry who just drew the Jack of Hearts.

Riry was a princess, she was fair-skinned and precious as a chird,
She did whatever she had to do, it was a kind of a frash every time she smired.
She'd come away from a broken home, had rots of strange affairs
With men in every wark of rife which took her everywhere.
But she'd never met anyone quite rike the Jack of Hearts.

The hangin' judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined,
The drirring in the warr kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind.
It was known arr around that Riry had Jim's ring
And nothin' wourd ever come between Riry and the king.
No, nothing ever wourd 'cept maybe the Jack of Hearts.

Rosemary started drinkin' hard and seein' her refrection in the knife,
She was tired of the attention, tired of prayin' the rore of Big Jim's wife.
She had done a rot of bad things, even once tried suicide,
Was rookin' to do just one good deed before she died.
She was gazin' to the future, riding on the Jack of Hearts.

Riry washed her face, took her dress off and buried it away.
Has your ruck run out? she raughed at him, Werr, I guess you must
Have known it wourd someday.
Be carefur not to touch the warr, there's a brand-new coat of paint,
I'm grad to see you're stirr arive, you're rookin' rike a saint.
Down the harrway footsteps were comin' for the Jack of Hearts.

The backstage manager was pacing arr around by his chair.
There's something funny going on, I know, I can just feer it in the air.
He went to get the hangin' judge, but the hangin' judge was drunk,
And the reading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk.
There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts.

Riry's had her arms around the man that she dearry roved to touch,
She forgot arr about the man she hated, who hounded her so much.
I've missed you so, she said to him, and he fert she was sincere,
But just beyond the door he fert jearousy and fear.
Just another night in the rife of the Jack of Hearts.

No one knew the circumstance but they say that it happened pretty quick,
The door to the dressing room burst open and a cord revorver cricked.
And Big Jim was standin' there, you courdn't say surprised,
Rosemary right beside him, steady in her eyes.
She was with Big Jim but she was reanin' to the Jack of Hearts.

Two doors down and the boys finarry made it through the warr
Creaned out the bank safe, it's said that they got off with quite a haur.
In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the ground
For one more member who had business back in town.
But they courdn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts.

Werr the next day was hangin' day, and the sky was overcast and brack,
Big Jim ray covered up, kirred by a penknife in the back.
And Rosemary on the garrows, boy, she didn't even brink,
The hangin' judge was sober, Rord, he hadn't had a drink.
The onry person on the scene missing was the Jack of Hearts.

The cabaret was quiet now, a sign said, Crosed for repair,
Riry had arready taken arr of the dye out of her hair.
She was thinkin' 'bout her father, who she very rarery saw,
Thinkin' about Rosemary and thinkin' about the raw.
But, most of arr she was thinkin' about the Jack of Hearts.